The Global Forum website tries to keep track of the ever changing landscape of trade analysis, measurement of trade and trade statistics. The site keeps a database of links to over 150 relevant publications, reports, articles and speeches.

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You can also perform a more comprehensive search of our publications databases HERE.

This block gives the general economic outlooks and their relation to international trade, as for instance given in UN/DESA's World Economic Situation and Prospects, in UNCTAD's World Investment Reports, and in national contributions such as Japan's White Paper on International Economy and Trade. It addresses related policy questions, such as the effects of globalization on economic growth, innovation, employment and sustainability, and the impact of international trade on job creation, taking into account the trading partner country or the kinds of product traded.

Trade and business statistics have common features starting with the fact that in the end the businesses are the ones making decisions on trading internationally and on making other kinds of international business arrangements, such as FDI, establishing foreign affiliates and outsourcing of business functions. These statistics include international merchandise trade statistics, statistics of international trade in services, foreign affiliates statistics, and foreign direct investment statistics; and links trade and business statistics to gain insights into the impact of globalization on competitiveness, employment, innovation and economic success.

Starting from the measurement framework of the System of National Accounts, this part clarifies the measurement of the international economic dimension of the SNA, especially to measure economic interdependencies of nations, their exposures and vulnerabilities. The international accounts for an economy summarize the economic relationships between residents of that economy and the rest of the world. Many international task teams are working on aspects of international trade and economic globalization, but an overarching framework is still missing.

Indicators which have been developed within the context of trade in value-added are, for instance, the import content of exports, value-added induced by export, or value-added induced by unit of export. Indicators help to identify the value-added of international trade, in particular the contribution of global value chains to economic growth, employment, productivity, labor compensation, research and development, and technological innovation. These indicators shed new light on financial, technological and trade interdependencies.